I think it might be better if the ‘top_page_default_timeframe’ setting affected the top period for all categories also by default. Then have the individual category setting ‘Default Top Period’ set to use ‘default’ by default (it currently uses ‘All Time’ as the default). Allowing admin’s to still override the default for each category if they want.
AI-generated summary
The discussion revolves around the ‘top_page_default_timeframe’ setting in Discourse. markersocial suggests that this setting should affect the top period for all categories by default, with individual categories allowing admins to override this default setting. codinghorror agrees, considering the current behavior to be a borderline bug. markersocial confirms that the setting is not inherited by categories, which default to ‘All Time’ instead of the ‘yearly’ default for ‘top_page_default_timeframe’. Moin explains the use-case for the ‘Default Top Period’ in categories, citing examples of how different time frames are more suitable for different categories, such as ‘all time’ for themes and ‘last month’ for support topics.
3 Likes
Oh, it doesn’t automatically inherit that setting per category? That’s a borderline bug maybe? 
4 Likes
Yeah, can confirm it’s not inherited. Default for ‘top_page_default_timeframe’ is ‘yearly’ and each individual category is set to use ‘All Time’ by default.
3 Likes
Can somebody confirm, whats the use-case of Default Top Period in categories table.
When you visit a category here at Meta, in most cases the default topic list is latest. But you can always also choose top in the navigation. Depending on the default top period, you then see the top topics of different time frames.
Customization > Theme will, for example, show you the top of all time, while Support shows the top topics of the last month. The top support topics of all time would probably be less interesting because the topics were solved long ago. But for themes, it does not matter when they were created; that’s why all time makes sense here.
1 Like